Scooped fingerboard extensions

[cntrlmn]

Just curious is anyone has any tricks to scooping out the fingerboard extension to eliminate the clicking sound on mandolins.I have a couple of cheap mandolins to practice on. What tools are needed(dremel tool? milling machine? etc.)

[jaydee]

Frank Ford's Article (http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/Mandolin/DropTongue/droptongue.html)

Happy Scooping
Jeremy

[cmandobury]

I did mine last week and this is a very good illustration but I did mine slighly different. To begin with mark your bridge. Next, tape and wrap your instrument very good. Now take a solder gun and heat the fret,you want to pull. Put a very small bead of solder on it to transfer the heat. I hope you have a pair of fret pullers or something very comparable, if not I'd wait till I did. If so, after you get the fret slightly hot start on one end and start prying up, go slow and work your way across. Do this until you get all the frets out and be especially careful on the last one closest to the nut. You don't want to have to repair a fractured piece of the fretboard. But if you do super glue and dust from filing later on works fine so save your dust. Now, here's what I did at the last fret pulled closest to the nut. I took a 1/4" fine round file and started filing on top of the fret slot until I reached the bottom. This gave me the angle I was looking for coming off the fingerboard. Next, I took a 115 dremil bit and got down to within .030 of my required depth. Then I took a fine flat ####### file and held it flat as possible until I reached the required depth. I also used 400 grit sandpaper to get to the bottom of the fret slots but I found the fine flat file did a better job for a finished product/fingerboard. I have some pictures of the job too if you want email me at acan1@cox.net. It took me about three hours too so take your time. Good Luck!!

[acousticphd]

I've done this by hand, with a small sharp chisel working with the FB grain to carve the wood down to the level of the fret troughs, and then hand-sanded. Be really sure to protect the top of the mando it you do this by hand, because you're using a fair amount of force with a sharp tool! I stopped short of round off the ledge on the scooped part. finish it quite as smoothly, but it doesn't look too bad.

[John Gardinsky]

After staring at mine for months I finally got the nerve to try the surgery myself a couple of years ago. I used Frank's method and it turned out very well. I had a stew-mac dremel router base, this worked o.k. but was a bit unsteady at times. I have never regetted scooping it out. Just be careful

[cntrlmn]

Thanks Guys for the feedback It's been a tremendious help.

[Scotti Adams]

I used a Dremel tool with a barrel sander attached..worked very well and a little fine sanding with finer grit sandpaper.